The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-07-31
on KEEPING A DIARY.
Some Views the Subject Which Vary
from Those Usually Expressed.


from Those Usually Expressed.
Charles Dudley warner. in August Harper.
Many people regard the keeping of a diary as
meritorious occupation. The young are urged
girls especially. Whether women should do It
is to some minds not an open question. aitnougn
there is on record the of the Frenchman
who tried TO shoot himself when ne heard that
his wife was keeping diary. This intention OF
suicide may have arisen from the fear that MS
wife was keeping record of his own peccadilloes
rather THAI of her own thoughts and emotions
Or 1t may nave been from the fear tnas sne was
putting down those little conjug remarks
which the husband always dislikes to have
thrown up to him. and which a woman can usu-
ally quote accurately, it may be for years, 1t
may be forever. without the help of diary. so
We can appreciate without approving the terror
of the Frenchman at living on and on In the
same house with a growing diary. For it is not
simply that this little book of Judgment
is there in black and white. but
that the maker of it is increasing her power
of minute observation and analytic expression
In discussing the question whether woman
should keep diary IL is understood that 1t IS
not a mere memorandum of events and engage
ments, such as both men and women or business
and affairs necessarily keep. but the daily record
which sets down feelings. emotions and impress
sions. and criticises people and records opinions
well women.
1t has been assumed that the diary serves two
good purposes; it is disciplinary exercise for
the keeper of 1t, and perhaps moral guide; and
1t has great historical value. AS to the first 1t
may be helpful to order, method. discipline, and
it may be an indulgence of spleen, whlms, and
saying right out what you think Of every.
body is not good one. and the
record of such opinions and impress
sons, while it is not mischievous to the
public as talking may be, is harmful to the re-
corder. And when we come to the historical
value of the diary, we confess to growing sus-
picion of it. 1t is such deadly weapon when it
comes to light after the passage of years. It has
an authority which the spoken wotds of its
keeper never had. 1t is ex parte and it cannot
be ossexamined. The supposition Is that
being contemporaneous with the events
spoken of, it must be true, and that it is
an honest record. Now. AS matter of fact.
themselves or others in diary than out of it;
and rumors, reported facts, and impressions set
down daily in the heat and haste of the preju-
dcal hour are about as likely to be wrong as
right Two diaries of the same events rarely
agree. And in turning over old diary we
never know what to allow for the persona,
the writer's of history, but the drawer doubts
if there is any such liar in the world, even
when the keeper of it is honest. 1t is certain to
be partisan, and more liable to be misinformed
than a newspaper which exercises some in
view of Immediate publicity. The writer hap
pens to know of two diaries which record, on the
testimony OF eye-witnesses, the circumstances
of the last hours of Garfield. and they differ ut
terly in essential particulars. One of
these may turn up fifty years from now
and he accepted true An infinite
amount of gossip goes into diaries about men
and women that would not stand the test of q
moments contemporary publication. But by
and by it may all be used TO smircb or brighten
unjustly some ones character. Suppose man
in the Army of the Potomac had recorded
daily all his opinions Of and of events.
Reading it now with more light and
juster knowledge of character and of measures,
is it not probable that be would find it tissue
of misconceptions Few things actually
what they seem to-day; they are colored both by
and by moods. IL a man
writes letter makes report of an occurrence
for immediate publication, subject TO universal
there is some restraint on him. In his
private letter. diary especially. he is apt to set
down what comes into his head at the moment,
often without much effort at verifcation.